20090129

A new short story - Tr-i-rony - Story 1 : Ramdin is up on the short story blog. The link is on the right.

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The weather here has been nothing short of freezing for the past couple of weeks. There has been abundant snowfall. Here are some pics that I took in the forest past weekend.

Ice on a log in the lake.

The surreal White Path to Neverland

Bare Naked Ladies

Frosting on Natural Ice Cream

In this weather though the grey matter was mobile. So here are some random thoughts from the almost frozen brain.-

- A sentence like I had a good sleep - isnt this an assumption as there is no way to verify it unless you are awake. How and on what do we base that the sleep was good. Isnt it the waking up that is actually different that makes us beleive that we had a good sleep.

- Another one God Bless You - Now here first we assume that the person believes in God and that he/she is not an atheist or agnostic. Also we never verify if the person really needs blessing at that given moment of time.

Now taking it furthur many people wish you saying God Bless You with (something) but will it not be fair to give a Gift Card of virtual blessing instead of a specific one. That way the blessed will make the best use of it as he/she deems it.

- What really happens when someone is always in a bad mood and does not like being funny. Is his/her Funny Bone fractured. But that is not possible as Funny Bone is really not a bone but a most unprotected nerve in your arm that is very sensitive. So what really goes wrong and what is the purpose of calling a nerve a bone - Why confuse us?

- Another one Hang In There - now if you tell someone who is perplexed or suicidal - think about the consequences. He/she can really ask you Where to hang? Also where is this place really that one can Hang when we are troubled. I have never found it. Is it a place where by hanging we dry up our emotions like clothes dring in the sun and then we feel better.

- When someone ask you over the phone What's Up? What do they mean? Do they want to know where I am standing and what is over my head. Do I answer that its the sky, or a tree or a ceiling. The only time such a statement can help is when you are standing below a tree and the bird has just pooped and you are asked at that very moment What's Up? It can save you the hit and stink.

20090120

I am not American, yet I enjoyed one very historic moment for this country -

Inauguration of the 44th President of United States - Barack Obama

congrats to him.

I enjoyed because you me and all of us are part of this history - where technology has made such a big difference.

For the past year I have been following his race and humble approach to include everyone to make a change for the better. He is very good orator and stupefies the audience everytime he gives a speech.

Internet has changed our lives in so many ways and this election and his victory was a testament to the most positive use of it thus far. He used technology to the fullest and got so many people - many young ones who avoided elections all together - to participate in the common goal. There was million plus crowd at the Washington DC mall - the largest crowd for a political gathering the city has ever seen.

Youtube was used to let the "common man" ask questions directly to the candidates during the primaries and today Facebook a social online network was used by CNN for live interaction when they showed the event live online. Also there must be innumerable blogs speaking for or against.

This empowerment of the common man hopefully spreads through to all the faculties of our human life - where one can avail of the best possible help from around the world - and is locally accepted means.

Time will be a witness to where all this leads to and what happens with this country.

20090111

Congratulations to A. R. Rahman for winning the Best Music Composure for the Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire at the 66th Annual Golden Globe Awards.

The movie also won the Best Motion Picture. The Best Director and the Best Script.

You can listen to few of the original score here. It is a brillaint album - with the original Rahman touch - do listen to it and also dont miss the movie - it is being relelased in India this week.....its a "real" tribute to my favorite city in the world - Bombay aka Mumbai - my hometown.

20090104

Have been out and caught up with few things. Will respond to all your comments later. Meanwhile I have been asked by few readers here to share some work or projects that I dabble with. Somehow I dont carrying on work to the blog, so have been reluctant but then I thought What the heck!!!!

Here is one project that I started working on in February of last year. It is an historic structure. Here was a post of it showing the existing building - Ruminations

(the tags in the circle respond to the place from where the pictures below were taken)Key Plan - This is an old historic barn (farm house) in central New Jersey. The owners are moving out of a big house as their kids have moved away. They wanted a quaint space where they could entertain family and guests and have a semi retired life.

The project involved adding a master suite, kitchen/family room and patio to an old historic farm house. The spaces in this old house are tiny as it is built around 1800's. To the left of the house are their stables/horses and swimming pool and the addition had to kind of had to open out the interior spaces to the exterior. Thus came about the idea of a transition space of a porch wrapped around. (seen in pic - 2). The porch also ties the new addition to the existing house as there is an existing porch but in the backyard (see in pic - 4)

Also the main criteria was to maintain the rustic barn look on the outside, mainting the roof lines, grades and to take care of existing structurul integrity and conditions and not alter much of the existing building. Also on the interiors it was important to match the woodwork to maintian the fluidity between the old and the new.

The pictures, I hope, are self explanatory.

1 - The front of the house with the left side addition towards the stables.

2 - Wrap around porch looking towards the swimming pool

4 - Sorry for the weird angles on this picture. It is taken in the backyard and was not able to get the correct perspective to join the two together.

5 - The entire addition is one and a half story open space. This is the kitchen/family room.

6 - This is the transition between the old and the new. The wall where you see the chimney is the old wall of the one story porch that we demolished. (this pic is in the old post)

Will be glad to answer any questions that you have. Just cant divulge the names of the owners and the budget. - Thanks.